Liberty quite literally enlightening the world

In the tenth test orbital flight of SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy rocket today, the company has what appeared to be a near perfect flight.

First the Superheavy booster worked as intended, completing a new return configuration to reduce stress, completing a soft vertical splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. During the landing the company tested using backup engines instead of the normal engines to see if this would work in future situations where an engine failed. This worked.

Next, Starship reached its low orbit, intended to end over the Indian Ocean. Unlike the last two test flights, the ship functioned as planned.

Starship completed a full-duration ascent burn and achieved its planned velocity, successfully putting it on a suborbital trajectory. The first in-space objective was then completed, with eight Starlink simulators deployed in the first successful payload demonstration from Starship. The vehicle then completed the second ever in-space relight of a Raptor engine, demonstrating a key capability for future deorbit burns.

Moving into the critical reentry phase, Starship was able to gather data on the performance of its heatshield and structure as it was intentionally stressed to push the envelope on vehicle capabilities. Using its four flaps for control, the spacecraft arrived at its splashdown point in the Indian Ocean, successfully executed a landing flip, and completed the flight test with a landing burn and soft splashdown.

Some burn through damage on Starship was seen, but relatively little, despite the decision to stress the flaps and the reduce the coverage of the heat shield. The landing was on target, an even more impressive achievement.

As must be repeated over and over, this was a test flight of prototypes. The final version of both Superheavy and Starship will not be the same. The flight tested preliminary designs and capabilities, the data obtained to then be used to redesign and revise both components of the rocket.

The most significant aspect of this test flight however is its funding. This giant rocket, more powerful than anything any government or nation has ever attempted, is not only being built entirely by a private American company, SpaceX, that company is also financing its development, using the revenue from its Starlink satellite constellation.

.The government is not involved. SpaceX used freedom to do this, a concept fundamental to the United States of America. Our nation was founded on the principle that all humans have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is the government’s job to facilitate those rights, not dictate what those humans could and could not do, as long as those actions hurt no one else.

SpaceX has epitomized these principles. Today’s flight reconfirmed them.

The next flight should likely follow in less than two months. It will be the final test flight of Block 2 of Starship. Later flights will test the significantly upgraded Block 3 version.

Furthermore, we should expect SpaceX to increase the pace of launches. It is no longer being blocked by red tape at the FAA, so it will move fast as soon as it is ready.

All hail freedom!